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WHAT AN 

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 

SHOULD BE. 



By President James McCosh, d.d.', ll.d., l.d. 

OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. 



WHAT AN 

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 

SHOULD BE. 



By President James McCosh, d.d., ll.d., l.d., 



OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. 



NEW YORK : 

J. K. LEES, PRINTER, 169 & 170 FULTON STREET. 
18S5. 



l^ 7 



GIFT 

MfiS. WOOOROW WiLSOM 

NOV. 25. 1939 



0J 






WHAT AN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SHOULD BE. : 



By President James McCosh, D.D., LL.D., L.D., 

OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. 



.^ 



There are very loose ideas entertained in America, and I 
may add, in other countries, as to what is the difference be- 
tween a college and a university, and what the relation of the 
one to the other. A modest institution like Princeton is con- 
tented with the title of college, whereas, she has sisters, who, 
with one-third the number of students and one-fourth the 
number of the instructors, call themselves universities. I 
will not name them, as their grand title proclaims their fame. 

It is not so difficult to determine what a college is. It is 
an institution set apart to give instruction, not just to chil- 
dren — that is a school, — but young people about to enter on 
their life-work. The phrase is sometimes applied in a meta- 
phorical sense to business colleges and tradesmen's colleges ; 
but scholars claim that, from long usage, it should be con- 
fined to institutions giving instruction in the higher or learned 
branches and authorized by the State to give a degree of some 
kind. 

It is not so easy to keep a university within due bounds. 
In the Dark Ages — but which I rather call the Twilight Ages 
between the ancient and modern days — they had Seven Lib- 
eral Arts, which they divided into a trivium and a quadrivium. 
The trivium embraced grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, in 
which youths were introduced to the use of language, and 
were taught to think and express themselves. These were the 
introductory studies (giving us the word trivial), but rising to 
the quadrivium, in which were geometry, arithmetic, music, 
and astrology — or the astronomy of the day, which gave a 
mystical meaning to the movement of the stars. These 
branches were taught by ecclesiastics in connection with 

* An address delivered at Woodstock, Conn., on the Fourth of July, 1885. 



— 4 — 

monasteries and cathedrals, in a narrow spirit and technical 
form. Yet, the instruction, like the winter, kept alive the 
seed which had been dropped at the fall of the Roman Empire, 
till a spring arrived when they burst out. In the eighth 
century, institutions were founded to give instructions in these 
studies, and were called universities, while the branches 
taught were called Studium Generale. We are astonished to 
hear of the stimulus thus given to youths of all grades of 
society. In the fifteenth century, it is said that at Bologna 
there were fully 10,000 scholars, at Paris 25,000, and at 
Oxford 30,000; "an exaggeration," says Hallam, "which seems 
to show that the number was very great." The universities 
had different faculties giving instruction in different depart- 
ments — the faculty of theology, the faculty of arts, the faculty 
of philosophy, the faculty of medicine, etc. These divisions 
have continued down to our day. At the renaissance of learn- 
ing, and the reformation in religion, the branches taught were 
widened ; ancient Greek, a variety of languages and litera- 
ture, and the new sciences were introduced, and this enlarge- 
ment has been going on ever since, and there is a strong 
demand that it be continued. 

We see what is the difference between a college and a uni- 
versity. A college is a teaching body ; a university is some- 
thing higher; it embraces a number and variety of depart- 
ments, it may be a number of colleges — Oxford has twenty-two 
— combined in a unity of government and aim, which is gen- 
erally to promote a higher learning. I have first to say a few 
things about a college. 

A college is fitted to do immeasurable good, though it 
should not rise into a university. Of the two, if we are obliged 
to choose between, a college well equipped and devoting itself 
to its work is of vastly greater use than a scattered university 
which spreads over a wide surface, and, professing to teach 
everything, teaches nothing effectively. The grand aim of 
our educationists, and, indeed, of all who love their country, 
should be to strengthen and improve the American colleges 
and make them fulfill their high end — that of imparting 
definite instruction, each to a body of promising young men 
spread all over the country. 



Here I may state that I do not feel inclined to indulge in 
the disparaging language sometimes applied to the smaller 
colleges by our haughty Eastern professors, who forget that 
their colleges were babies before they became men, and were 
brought out of the land of Egypt, and came through the 
wilderness. Most of these younger colleges are serving a 
good purpose. They all do so, so far as they give solid, 
and not superficial, knowledge; so far as they teach thor- 
oughly the fundamental and disciplinary branches of litera- 
ture, science, and philosophy, and also impart religious 
instructions to give a high tone to the mind. They draw a 
number of young men from their vicinity who could never be 
allured to more distant and expensive places. If they cannot 
impart a wide and varied culture, they often give a substantial 
training. 

It is a happy circumstance that in almost all these colleges 
religion is inculcated ; and they may be the means of com- 
pelling our larger colleges not to abandon it, when they 
might be led to do so by the pressure of the times. I admit, 
as to some of them, that they seem to serve little other pur- 
pose than to keep back young men from better colleges, where 
they might get stimulus and true scholarship. But these will 
give way, by the force of that law of our world, " the struggle 
for existence," which demands that the weak die while the 
strong survive. 

It is not noticed so often as it should be that, while our 
larger universities teach a greater number of subjects, they 
cannot teach all of them to every young man. Each student 
cannot take more than a certain number — say four, or, at the 
utmost, six — each year, and when the number of electives is 
large, he may be tempted to take what is easy or showy, 
rather than what is fitted to brace or strengthen the mind or 
prepare him for the hard struggle of life. The young man 
who in his senior year takes a century of history, music, art, 
and a criticism of French plays in a large college, of whose 
greatness he boasts, living upon its glory instead of his own 
exertions, may not be so well educated, after all, as one who, 
in a Western college, is required to take ethics, astronomy, 
geology, and political economy. 



I hold, then, that we may retain all our colleges that impart 
real knowledge and culture. But there may, there should, also 
be universities. Every thinking man knows and feels that 
this country has now reached a stage at which it should look 
toward confirming, enlarging, and improving the universi- 
ties already existing, and rearing a few new ones, it may be, 
on a better model. We have now to settle the question what 
should be the aim of a university. 

i. It should combine and regulate the course of study in 
the several departments, or colleges, which make up the 
university, say art and science and theology and medicine 
and architecture, or whatever else. It is not necessary, per- 
haps it is not expedient, that every one of these should be 
independent of the others. They might always co-operate in a 
variety of ways, and so that a branch of knowledge which 
was taught effectively in one department might be available 
by a student in another. The same professor might teach 
chemistry in the arts and in the science department. A 
student in arts, wishing anatomy, might have it effectively 
taught him by the professor in the school of medicine. A 
student in law or medicine might have his mind enlarged by 
taking certain classes in arts. Each department of the 
building should have its separate place, while the university, 
as a tower, combines and crowns the whole. 

2. It should establish what are called post-graduate, or 
graduate courses. In the under-graduate courses the studies 
are very much crowded, owing to the multiplied branches 
which an educated man has now to learn. It would be of 
great use if we could detain one in ten, or, better, one in five, 
a year after graduation, in order to study specially some 
special branch or branches. Post-graduate courses should be 
provided for these. In these, the very highest studies and 
investigations in the several arts and sciences should be pur- 
sued, say in languages or in science or philosophy. They 
might be taught as advanced courses by the under-graduate 
professors, or by special professors, of high gifts. They 
should be open only to those who have taken a degree in one 
or other of the collegiate departments, or by favor to special 
students who have reached high attainments in particular 



branches. These would be eagerly seized by our higher minds, 
with a taste for higher work, and ready to go on with it. 
These are the youths who would conduct original research 
and make original observations, and advance learning and 
make discoveries, and bring glory to the place at which they 
received their education, and to their country at large. They 
should be encouraged by scholarships and fellowships, which 
would furnish partial support to those following these high 
pursuits, and be recognized and rewarded by degrees which 
would at once stamp those earning them as possessing high 
qualities, and entitling them to be chosen to positions of 
honor and influence. By this means, America could pro- 
duce scholars and observers equal to those in Europe. This 
cannot be accomplished if students are constrained to give up 
learning as soon as they have earned their first academic 
degree, a state of things almost universal in this country. 

3. It should have various sorts of degrees in which different 
kinds of studies culminate. 

Every university should have a Degree in Arts. This, in 
my opinion, should be the essential one in all our universities, 
which might do without every other one degree, but should 
not be tolerated without this. This is the degree which im- 
plies, or should imply, that the person possessing it has cult- 
ure. All students should be allured, though it may be 
they cannot be compelled, to take it before they enter any 
other school, such as that of law or medicine. Happily, it is 
required on the part of most churches before entering on the 
study of theology. In this way we might secure a body of 
truly learned men in all our learned professions. They have 
vastly more of this in the European countries than in America. 
Thus, in Great Britain (since I began to take an interest in 
public questions), a very considerable amount of general 
scholarship is required of those who would enter on the study 
of medicine ; and, to my personal knowledge, the character 
of physicians has been greatly raised in this last age; their 
skill is acknowledged to be vastly greater, their manners have 
been refined, and the respect in which they are held greatly 
increased. In no way could the medical profession be so 
effectually elevated as by a provision of this kind. 



But, in order to accomplish these and other good ends, the 
standard of scholarship should be kept up in the Arts Depart- 
ment. It should embrace the new branches as they become 
established ; but it should also hold by the old. If it is to 
serve its end, and keep its high position, we must retain such 
branches as Greek and Logic and Ethics ; and scholars must 
fight determinedly to hold this fort. 

But while Arts ought to hold the essential place in a uni- 
versity, I am not prepared to maintain that it should be the 
only department allowed or encouraged. I hold that all true 
knowledge of an elevating kind, that all that is fitted to 
enlarge and refine the mind, may have a place in a university, 
and each group of studies may have its separate degree. I 
do not here speak of professional degrees, such as those of 
law and medicine, of agriculture and architecture, but rather 
of those intended to encourage learning and culture. There 
might be the degrees of Bachelor of Literature, Master of 
Literature, and Doctor of Literature. There should be De- 
grees of B.S., of M.S., and D.S. I have no objections even to 
degrees in painting and music. But let all these branches be 
taught in a scientific manner and spirit, and the degrees be- 
stowed only after a rigid examination. 1 Let no one be entitled 
to the honor merely because of his practical skill. This is its 
own reward, and needs no other than the money it brings. In- 
every university there should be the various branches that 
cultivate the higher faculties of the mind. If there be degrees 
of literature which cultivate the taste, and of science which 
impart knowledge, there should also be degrees in philosophy, 
to encourage thought, especially reflective thought, embracing 
all departments of mental and social science, with the princi- 
ples involved in historical investigation in art and in law. 
Care must be taken in grouping the studies to be taken in 
order to degrees, not to encourage narrow and exclusive 
study, which makes our minds one-sided and malformed. A 
degree of no kind should be given to any one whose mind is 
not stored with some sort of knowledge, and refined by some 
kind of literature, say that of his own country. 

I have an idea that there is a point here at which the pres- 
ent controversy, as to whether Greek" and Mental Science 



— 9 — 

should be retained as obligatory departments in a college, 
may terminate. I think we should fight to the death to keep 
these in the Department of Arts. They have been implied in 
the Arts Degree in times past. Great good is to be secured 
by continuing this in time to come. It will secure a breadth 
and comprehensiveness of mind among our educated men 
which will tend to advance our nation in all that is great and 
good. But, surely, there may be academic degrees bestowed 
in which Greek is not required, such as degrees in science, 
degrees in medicine. Above all things, it should be insisted 
that every degree has a meaning which all men can under- 
stand, and that it should be bestowed honestly. Master of 
Arts should signify that he who possesses it is a classical 
scholar and has a general knowledge of science and literature. 
Doctor of Philosophy should denote that the possessor of it is 
a thinker, inquiring into the fundamental principles of things 
without and within him. 

4. The grand aim of a university should be to promote all 
kinds of high learning, in literature and science, in the liberal 
arts and in philosophy. 

In particular, it should encourage and carry on original 
research. The question is sometimes discussed whether the 
chief office of a college should be to instruct the young or to 
advance knowledge. I take my side on that question very 
decidedly : I hold that it should be the primary aim, both of a 
college and a university, to educate the promising youth of a 
country. But I maintain, at the same time, that every high- 
class teacher should be carrying on researches of his own. 
This, as it becomes known, will stimulate his pupils power- 
fully, and make them more earnest and enthusiastic in pursu- 
ing their studies. As he asks them to join with him, they will 
feel that they are fellow-workers with him, and in a sense 
sharers in the glory that gathers round him. 

In carrying out this idea a university should always seek 
to employ as professors those who are ready to undertake 
active work in their department and to widen the boundaries 
of knowledge. They might even include in their body a few 
persons not specially fitted to teach large classes, but who, in 
conducting their own researches, may give instruction to a 



select few, who are determined to penetrate deeper into the 
secrets of Nature, and who are to advance the science of the 
world. 

Suppose, now, that, in America, there is a person, or a body 
of persons — say a college, — wishing to establish a university. 
I may be permitted, without at all dictating to them, to throw 
out a few hints as to how they should proceed. 

i. I would have them bear in mind that they do not re- 
quire, in erecting a university, to proceed de novo. They 
should remember that the ground is already so far occupied. 
There are, at this moment, toward 400 colleges in America 
with the power of granting degrees. They are scattered over 
the country, and many of them supply able and efficient 
teaching. They have sprung up spontaneously in the country, 
and are suited to its genius and its circumstances. They have 
the instinct of life-preservation, and they shrink from annihi- 
lation. Most of them are doing good, and to kill them would 
be murder in the first degree. They are not to be swept away, 
but to be elevated. Some of them are to be made the basis on 
which our universities are to be built. 

2. There are colleges which may be, and should aim to be> 
universities. I use this guarded language because I do not 
believe that every college should call itself a university or 
strive to rise to this elevation. A college may do boundless 
good for time and for eternity without striving to swell itself 
into more ambitious dimensions. It may educate a body of 
young men to occupy high positions as ministers of religion, 
as lawyers, as doctors, and, indeed, in all professions. No 
college should seek prematurely to be a university. For my- 
self, I have, until the present time, resisted all attempts to 
designate Princeton by that name. But there are colleges 
which may legitimately and laudably aim to reach the higher 
status. They have been adding new departments and new 
professors, till they have now a Studium Generate, and they 
need only to mount one step higher and be organized into a 
university. But, in doing so, it is to be understood that they 
are to aim at accomplishing all the high ends implied in the 
name. 

3. I argue resolutely that the American university should 



not seek to mold itself upon any European model. The 
European universities are the growth of ages, most of them 
cherished by the Church and supported by the State, and 
adapted to this state of things. They differ from each other. 
The German ones differ widely from the British. The 
English do not give instruction in the same way as the Scotch : 
the former do it chiefly by tutors and text-books, the latter by 
professors and lectures. The American university should 
take a character of its own, suited to the circumstances of its 
birth and its growth. The scattered colleges would still have 
to do the work of giving higher education to the young men of 
America. But a limited number of universities, well-endowed 
and set up in favorable localities, would indefinitely extend 
the range of American scholarship and original investigation. 
It should be so arranged that a student graduated at any of 
our scattered colleges should be able to go on to the universi- 
ties to receive the special instruction which he may wish. 

4. The American universities need not be all alike. They 
might be all after one general model, but with a diversity 
along with their sameness, "just as, if a number of archers 
had aimed successfully at a mark upon a wall, and this mark 
were then removed, we could, by an examination of their 
arrow-marks, point out the probable position of the spot 
aimed at with a certainty of being nearer to it than any of 
their spots." (Ruskin.) Each might differ from the other 
according to its position, and the ends it sets before it, and 
the wealth committed to it. A university so situated as not to 
be within reach of law courts or hospitals, would not wish to 
have a law school or a medical school. Where there are 
no mines, we need not set up a mining school. A city uni- 
versity would find a school of agriculture to be an inconven- 
ience to it. For myself, I feel that it would be quite beyond 
me to set up universities suited to every one locality. But of 
this I am sure, that, with the assistance of the friends of edu- 
cation and of the college, I could now establish an excellent 
university at Princeton. 

I am of opinion that, in the university, both the faculty 
and the board of trustees should retain their place of trust. 
The discipline should continue, with the faculty divided, when 



the college is large, into sub-faculties, to take charge of each 
class. The trustees should be the bond of connection between 
the outside world and the teaching body, serving much the 
same purpose as the Government does to the State-endowed 
universities of Europe. They should provide the funds, take 
a general oversight, and act as a jury in all educational 
discussions. 

I have sometimes thought that a third body should be 
instituted, composed of elected members of the board of trus- 
tees, of elected members of the faculty, and of elected mem- 
bers of the alumni. It should be understood that the persons 
should all be scholars, and acquainted with the higher educa- 
tion of various countries. They might constitute a senate or 
council for the regulation of the education in the college, 
being always under the board of trustees. They should have 
the right to visit all lecture-rooms, to inspect all examinations, 
to report on the teaching of the college, and to suggest 
remedies for abuses. The president of the college should be 
president of this board. When it exists, it should have the 
power of arranging the courses of study in order to a degree, 
and for recommending to the trustees candidates for the degrees. 

It is suggested to me here to propose two important 
reforms in university regulations, which should be carried out 
whether there is or is not a senate or council. In Europe the 
examination for degrees are all conducted by persons other 
than the professors. In some cases the examiners are entirely 
different from the instructors. In other cases (having acted 
under both systems, I prefer this) there are competent scholars 
associated with the professors. It stimulates professors when 
they know that their work is thus to be overlooked by com- 
petent men ; and the best teachers always like the system. It 
stimulates students to know that they should have not only 
a knowledge of the teaching of their professor, but of the 
general subject which he has taught. It should always be 
understood that the ordinary teaching and recitations should 
be left with the professors, under the control of the trustees. 
But the examination for degrees should lie with impartial 
examiners, who are a guarantee to the public that the degrees 
are properly bestowed. 



— 13 — 

The public are demanding a reform on another point, and 
that is in regard to the mode of conferring higher degrees, 
and especially honorary degrees. The terms on which such 
degrees as Doctor of Philosopy, Doctor of Science, Doctor of 
Literature, and the like, should be granted, might be reviewed 
with profit, and with public approbation. The general senti- 
ment is that they should be given only after a course of study 
in a special department has been pursued, and an examination 
held upon it. 

There is a deep and growing dissatisfaction with the mode 
in which honorary degrees are conferred at commencements 
and on other occasions. They are bestowed on no good prin- 
ciple that I can discover. The end intended by all academic 
titles is to call forth, encourage, and reward scholarship. They 
are prostituted when they are turned to any other ends. It is 
alleged that they are given, at times, merely from personal 
friendship; I believe that such cases are not numerous in our 
higher colleges. The avowed principle on which they are 
commonly bestowed is to secure friends to the college, in 
ministers of religion, in teachers, in wealthy or influential 
men. But this end is not always secured. The public are 
shrewd enough to see through the whole thing, and despise 
the action and the actors. Trustees should see the sneer that 
gathers on the face of intelligent people when they hear or 
read of a degree bestowed on some person who has done 
nothing to deserve it. A decent, respectable minister gets a 
D.D., and it is supposed that he is thereby pre-engaged to the 
college, to which he will send all the boys in his congregation. 
But he is surrounded by a half-dozen ministers who feel that 
they are quite as good as he is, and, having been overlooked, 
they are tempted to send their boys elsewhere. 

Surely, a way may be devised by which these evils, about 
which the public is now sensitive, may be avoided, and hon- 
orary degrees given only to men who have promoted scholar- 
ship or done some great work fitted to elevate mankind. The 
recommendation for degrees should not be left with a common 
board, which has no means of making a scrutiny. It should 
proceed from a company of select men who make careful 
inquiry as to the qualifications of the persons nominated. It 



— i 4 — 

might be left with the senate or council, when there is such a 
body ; when there is not, the board of trustees might appoint 
a standing committee, consisting of its most scholarly mem- 
bers, to sift all applications and report to the board. As to 
American colleges scattering titles over the world, the practice 
might now cease, and every man be left to seek the honor 
from his own country, where they can best judge of him. 
This would certainly have one good effect : it would prevent 
American degrees from becoming the laughing-stock of 
Europe. 

I have said enough. It is not for me to draw out the con- 
stitution of the American university. I am satisfied if I have 
furnished a good ground-plan. My hope is that I have scat- 
tered this day a few seeds which may germinate, possibly, in 
the minds of others. 

No institutions are making greater progress at this present 
time than universities all over the world. If America is to 
keep up with other countries, it must advance with them. In 
practical invention — such, for instance, as reaping machines 
and sewing machines, — America is before other countries. In 
our ordinary college work we are equal to them. Our students 
are as hard-working and drink in as much knowledge as the 
English, the Scotch, or the Irish. But there are still certain 
superiorities in the Old World. The European universities 
still surpass us in rearing a few ripe scholars, and in produ- 
cing a greater number of profound scientific men. Students 
have still to go to Europe — especially to Germany — for certain 
branches of study. America, while carefully keeping what it 
has got, should strive to equal the countries of our fathers' 
sepulchres on the points in which it is deficient ; that is, in 
not only sending forth a large number of usefully educated 
youth, but in rearing a body of truly learned men, who advance 
scholarship and make scientific discoveries which lead to all 
sorts of practical applications. 

This, as it appears to me, might best be secured by super- 
inducing universities upon a few of our more advanced 
colleges. In some respects, we are at a disadvantage when 
compared with Europe; in others, we are in a superior position. 
They have the prestige of ancestry and antiquity; but, on the 



— 15 — 

other hand, we have the spring and elasticity of youth. They 
have a larger experience ; but we have a new life and a wider 
field. Except for the benefit of travel and of seeing other 
countries, it should no longer be necessary for our youth to 
go in troops to foreign universities to slake their thirst for 
knowledge; for they should have all the learning they need 
in their own land. The universities of Europe are cramped 
by antiquated laws and proscriptions, and by vested pecuniary 
rights which cannot be interfered with. America, not being 
so hindered, might stretch out wide as its own territory. 
This, however, is for the future; for the present, it is simply 
to be earnestly aimed at. But, according to a shrewd proverb 
of my native country, "A thing well begun is half ended." 



POSTSCRIPT. 

It now lies with the college authorities to determine 
whether they are prepared to make Princeton College a 
university. For myself, I am anxious that the Alumni should 
take an interest in and express an opinion on the subject. 

All the late advances in this college have tended toward 
making it take a comprehensive character, such as is implied 
in the name " University." We have been enabled to do this 
by the munificent gifts of Mr. lohn C. Green, continued by 
his trustees; of Messrs. Robert L. and Alexander Stuart, and 
of Mrs. Stuart; of Mr. John I. Blair ; of Mr. H. G. Marquand; 
of Mr. Libbey ; of Mr. Robert Bonner; of Mr. John S. 
Kennedy ; of Mr. Frederick Marquand's trustees, and others. 
We have been adding immensely to the subjects taught and 
the number of our professors, and we have secured erudite 
men to fill the chairs. We have now a large corps of profes- 
sors and tutors, who have been distributed into three depart- 
ments acting in unison : I., Language and Literature ; II., 
Science ; III., Philosophy. We have just added two young 
assistant professors, one in Mathematics and one in Physics. 
We have two German professors, and provision has been 
made for a professor of French Language and Literature, who 
will know the Romance languages and be ready to teach 
Italian and Spanish to those who wish it. 



We need only take a step in advance to make the college 
a university. We do not need to add any new buildings to 
the fine ones we already have, except a fire-proof Museum of 
Art, for which we have a subscription of $25,000. We are not 
proposing to set up either a Medical School or a Law School. 
But we add to the number of those studies which cultivate 
the mind, which rear educated gentlemen and fit them for 
the higher professions of life. There might be special courses, 
with special academic titles attached, in Literature, Science, 
and Philosophy. 

In order to accomplish this we would require the endow- 
ment of a few new chairs, and room for an indefinite increase. 
We should also add to the salaries of some of our younger 
professors, and require them to conduct university courses, 
which they are perfectly competent to do. If we had this we 
could easily organize a university deserving of the name, 
keeping the A. B. and A. M. degree as they are, and requiring 
all seeking for it to take a high course of study, including 
Greek and Mental Science. We might have a variety of 
degrees, each with a distinct meaning, and implying special 
qualifications in Literature, in Philosophy and Science, in 
the Fine Arts, in Economic Studies, in Journalism, and in 
Statesmanship. In this way we could give instruction in 
every department of a liberal education. 

James McCosh. 



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